NIOB 2016 AMT ORIGINAL SERIES 18" STAR TREK U.S.S. ENTERPRISE MODEL KIT w/ Stand

Description

New in Open Box - 2016 AMT - Round 2 LLC - ORIGINAL SERIES 18" STAR TREK U.S.S. ENTERPRISE 50th Anniversary MODEL KIT w/ Display Stand!
1/650 AMT USS Enterprise 50th Anniversary model kit review:
Kit Review:
1/650 scale Star Trek USS Enterprise from Round 2/AMT
By Jay Chladek
Most SF modelers have a bit of a love hate relationship with the old AMT 18” Enterprise kit from Star Trek. In one sense we tend to look back with affection for this model as for most, it was one of the first SF kits we ever built. In another sense, we also think back to the shortcomings of the plastic as it wasn’t exactly studio model accurate, had its fair share of construction problems to overcome and the decal sheet was a bit lacking compared to what aftermarket sources could offer. Not many modelers shed tears when the old tooling was retired from the AMT catalog in the 1996 after thirty years of production.
Fast forward to 2008 and interest in the kit grew when Round 2 announced they were reissuing the old kit in the original first issue box art from the 1960s. I myself had mixed feelings as I knew from doing research for the “History of the AMT Enterprise” article that the more recent pressings of the kit were almost entirely different from the original offerings. This newer kit (which I refer to as the Small Box version), was made from steel tooling around 1975 and it replaced the aluminum tooling used for the original kit issued in 1966. This was done because the old molds were worn out and demand for the kit remained high. Although the newer kit was easier to assemble then its predecessor, accuracy suffered in certain key areas, such as the secondary hull, navigational deflector and detail pieces on the warp engines. As such, I wondered just what Round 2 was going to do with this new offering to make people want to buy it again. Now we have our answer.
The newest issue of the 18” kit comes packaged in a box identical in size to the original and featuring the first issue box art. The eyes are treated to a wash of 1960s colors and the artwork looks just as fresh today as it did when first issued. I’m tempted to frame this artwork as it looks that good. The side panels do show minor differences from the original (no “As seen on NBC TV” printing and revised contents and description panels), making it somewhat easy for collectors to spot differences between this box art and the original. But I imagine somebody on the internet auction sites will try to pass this new issue off as the original, so be careful if you are looking for an original AMT issue.
Original Saucer with Grid
The contents of the box look familiar. True to form, the plastic is essentially the small box kit done in white plastic like the original run kits, as opposed to the gray plastic used by AMT/Ertl in the 1980s and 90s. As such, this kit builds up the same as the older ones. But there is one pleasant change as the upper saucer is now completely smooth and no longer features the raised panel line grid that was the subject of many a debate in modeling forums.
Reissued Saucer without the grid
To do this, it looks like AMT polished the lines off the mold. As a result the smooth saucer top is ever so slightly thicker then the ones with the grid. The saucer edge has more sprue channels, probably due to the age of the molds. But it is nothing that a little modeling skill can’t overcome. The upper and lower sensor domes are molded in clear with an ever so slight green tint, but the green is hardly noticeable at all. All other details remain the same as other small box issues, from the three dimples on the lower saucer, to the less accurate deflector dish and housing.
New decal sheet
Okay, so the plastic hasn’t changed much, but what about the decal sheet? Rather then issue the kit with a reprint of either the original decals from the first issues, or the later small box markings, Round 2 decided to offer an all new decal sheet based on the one designed for the Polar Lights 1/1000 Enterprise kit. This sheet is BIG as it is almost as big as the floor of the kit box! Every feature from the 1/1000 sheet is provided here in perfect register as you get all the markings for the dark windows on the pilot version of the ship, the lighted windows on the series version and all the proper trim markings unique to these different versions. The only thing I can see missing are the gray triangle markings for the bottom of the saucer. The Polar Lights kit has those triangles etched into the saucer, so no decals were provided. But since they aren’t molded into the AMT saucer, it is up to the modeler to come up with replacements on his own. Like the Polar Lights sheet, you also get the slightly different pilot version fonts for the ship name and NCC numbers, and you also get the Mirror Universe markings for the ISS Enterprise as well. Also provided are names and NCC numbers for 12 additional starships done in the proper series style font numbers and the upper saucer numbers are printed in an arc. The following names and NCC numbers are provided:
USS Constellation NCC-1017
USS Constitution NCC-1700
USS Defiant NCC-1764
USS Excalibur NCC-1664
USS Exeter NCC-1672
USS Farragut NCC-1647
USS Hood NCC-1703
USS Intrepid NCC-1631
USS Lexington NCC-1709
USS Potemkin NCC-1657
USS Republic NCC-1371
USS Yorktown NCC-1717
Only the names and numbers for USS Kongo and USS Valiant are not provided as these were on the sheet issued in AMT’s small box pressings. But even without a letters “J, Q, V and Z” on the sheet, a modeler has enough letters and numbers to cobble together almost any name and NCC number they so desire and these missing letters could be modified from others as well. With some rationing, quite a few of the markings that would end up unused on a model could be used to decorate a second one in combination with markings from other sources, be they kit or aftermarket.
In conclusion, this reissue offers excellent value for the money if for nothing else then the decal sheet alone as a price this kit retails for makes it practically a steal. There are enough aftermarket parts out there from various sources to overcome the kit’s well documented shortcomings and its decent size builds into an attractive model, regardless of any corrections being made to the kit or not. The low number of parts makes it a good introduction to science fiction modeling for even novice builders, although the Polar Lights 1/1000 scale kits are still easier to assemble and more accurate. Round 2 will also be offering this kit in a special collectors tin for almost double the price, but the kit contents will be exactly the same as the boxed version. If you want to take a stroll down memory lane and visit an old friend, this kit is waiting for you. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Star Trek model kits
The development of Star Trek model kits began shortly after Star Trek: The Original Series began to air in 1966. AMT acquired the license to produce plastic model kits based on the series and announced their plan to produce a kit of the USS Enterprise.
The model's resounding success at retail prompted AMT's development of a follow-up kit, resulting in the creation of the D7-class Klingon battle cruiser, released as model kit in 1968. It was specifically designed for AMT by Matt Jefferies. The D7 design was soon featured in the third season of Star Trek by the show's producers. These two models were the only Star Trek models AMT released while The Original Series was still in production. The only other company, besides AMT/Aurora, that produced model kits while the series was in production, though only just barely, was the Japanese company KSN Midori, in the guise of two differently sized USS Enterprise kits, for the Japanese market only.
Over the next decade, and after The Original Series had wrapped, AMT would expand upon the line to include the Romulan Bird-of-Prey, a Spock figure kit, and scaled versions of Star Trek props. Originally, AMT chose not to license the Star Trek name outside of the US. Aurora Plastics Corporation, another noted model kit company, leased AMT's molds and released the models outside of the US. The Spock figure kit originated from Aurora but a reciprocal leasing agreement gave AMT the exclusive rights to release the figure in the US. AMT bought the Spock figure's tooling from Aurora in 1976.
At the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, AMT was acquired by Matchbox (or rather its parent company Lesney Products & Co. Ltd.) and began to expand its range to include the refit-Enterprise, the K't'inga-class battle cruiser, and the long range shuttle. AMT continued to release kits based on the Star Trek films following its acquisition by the Ertl Company in 1981. AMT/Ertl subsequently gained the licenses to produce model kits based on The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine but Revell-Monogram was able to outbid them for the license to produce ships from Star Trek: Voyager. AMT/Ertl's original Star Trek line came to an end in 1999.
Following AMT/Ertl's merger with Racing Champions, the company tried to revive the Star Trek line with four re-releases in 2005. The line's revival strongly improved after 2008 when the AMT division was acquired by Round 2 LLC and was given a new and unique AMT branding.
Since the 1990s, a limited number of other companies including GEO metric Design, Tsukuda Hobby, Polar Lights (acquired from Racing Champions by Round 2 in 2007), Platz (through an one-time-only sub-license from Polar Lights), and Bandai have been licensed to produce plastic Star Trek model kits, but as of 2020 Revell Germany (spun-off from Revell-Monogram in 2006, becoming a fully European-owned independent company) and Round 2 LLC (current owner of both AMT and Polar Lights) are the only two known fully licensed model kit companies to actually release Star Trek model kits on a regular basis, Revell Germany doing so far less frequently than its two American counterparts do, with AMT limiting itself to re-issues of their kit releases predating their acquisition by Round 2. The status of the US Revell-Monogram Voyager license, was until 2021 unclear as no Star Trek model kit has been released by them since 1997, nor are any likely to follow as the last Monogram owner Hobbico declared bankruptcy in June 2018.
However, that uncertainty came to an end in July 2021, when Polar Lights released a differently scaled and retooled USS Voyager model kit, indicating that the Voyager license had in the mean time been acquired for the North-American home market by Round 2 as well, meaning that all official Star Trek model kits – save one – were as of 2021 produced under a single roof for the first time since Revell-Monogram acquired the original Voyager license around 1994. The European license however, still resides with the German Revell branch, which was spun off from Monogram in 2006. Revell-Germany incidentally, has gained the distinction of having released the only officially licensed Star Trek model kit based on the alternate reality films, that of the alternate reality Enterprise in 2013. Under the license stipulations, that kit is formally forbidden to be sold on North-American soil, as are all the other Revell-Germany Star Trek kit (re-)releases for that matter, including the very same Voyager reissue ones as previously released in North-America by former parent Monogram. (see: main article)
By 2021, Revell-Germany and Eaglemoss Collections were the only two other companies left anywhere else in the world to have been awarded an official license to produce Star Trek model kits. Contrary to the Revell-Germany releases though, the British single one-off specialty kit from Eaglemoss is allowed to be sold in North-America. The licensing of Star Trek model kits is traditionally the purview of Viacom CBS Consumer Products and its predecessors, and the different treatment of the German-produced kits and the single British one is but one of many examples of the oftentimes incomprehensible and befuddling policies the department employs, not rarely to the utter frustration and anger of fans and customers, including the model kit collectors. Former VAM producer and fan Robert Meyer Burnett became one of the Star Trek alumni who publicly voiced his befuddlement and frustration at these in his eyes murky department policies in a February 2017 Word Balloon podcast interview (currently posted on YouTube), where he related the lengths he had to go through to get his hands on a copy of the Revell-Germany alternate reality Enterprise model kit.
Star Trek model kits, both the official ones as well as the below-mentioned "garage" kits, have been covered extensively in a wide range of hobby magazines and book titles concerning themselves with the subject, and of which the British Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models publication has, until recently, especially warranted attention.
Quick to point out kit (canon) inaccuracies as had already been the case with the very first 1966 Enterprise kit and the subsequent AMT releases – which has to this date forced them to frequently retool the masters for kit re-issues – , more adult kit modelers are in general sticklers for accuracy, regardless of the subject matter and unsurprising considering the amount of time they are required to spend on their builds. Recognizing and acknowledging the phenomenon among Star Trek modelers, it was especially Bandai and Polar Lights who took their customer's need for accuracy to heart with the praised 2003-2004 kit-line in Bandai's case, whereas Polar Lights took it up a notch even further with their critically acclaimed 1:350 scale model kit line, launched in 2003. It has also served as a rationale why Polar Lights has apparently been appointed as the lead company for truly new Star Trek model kit releases by owner Round 2.
A major source of frustration and chagrin for an entire generation of Star Trek modelers had until the late-1990s been the complete lack of good actual studio model reference material for their builds, particularly in regard to painting, deeming the usual artistic interpretations featured as box-art of little to no use. Even though AMT had some pictures (precious few though, as far as modelers were concerned) of the actual studio models featured on the box covers and sides of their 1980 The Motion Picture kit releases, they did not continue do so afterwards, with the exception of the 1992 K't'inga-class and three of the four 1993-1996 Deep Space Nine kits – even though they had sometimes and very sparingly featured studio model photography on the box sides of other kits as had been the case with the 1989 3-Piece "Adversary Set", featuring the real color of the original D'deridex class model. Incidentally, AMT had used the production-used D7 class model (actually one of AMT's two tooling masters for kit production, but usurped by the strapped-for-cash Original Series production for filming purposes) as box-cover art for their aforementioned 1968 kit release, becoming the very first and for twelve years the only time an actual studio model was used as such, but strong studio light flooding blurred out the model's original paint scheme in the picture, precipitating a decades-long misconception in Star Trek-lore, not in the least among modelers, of what the real color of the D7-class was.
Revell-Monogram became the first company to realize the added value of actual studio model imagery for modelers as visual aid, as emphatically stated on their boxes, and was consistent in its use as box-cover art – but, excepting Maquis raider and Kazon shuttle kits, not on the box sides where pictures of the completed model kits were used instead – of their 1995 Voyager kits, though dispensing with it afterwards for the reissues and new releases, featuring photographs of completed model kits instead (conceivably for copyright reasons, i.e. having to additionally pay the franchise for picture use - see also below), considered equally useless by modelers.
Until then modelers had to make do with low-resolution blurry motion picture stills, taken under studio conditions on top of that which not rarely could lead to confusion and misconceptions (as had been the case with among others the D7-class, Galaxy-class and D'deridex-class, in the latter case somewhat ironically as AMT's photo on the box side of its 1989 three-piece kit had been the first-time publication of the model's true color which only added to the confusion of modelers who up until then only knew the two different on-screen and publicity versions), as good studio model reference material was still extremely hard, if at all, to come by on the early 1990s internet, nor was any available yet in print beyond a stray single equally low-resolution picture published here and there over multitude of more generic publications, be it licensed or unlicensed. Only put online by William S. McCullars in 1997, the very first more detailed Star Trek studio model reference website became the in modeling circles renowned, but now defunct, "The IDIC Page", where the featured behind-the-scenes photographs, provided and taken on personal title by production staffers and exhibition visitors alike, of the studio models were especially valued by the Star Trek modeling community.  To an extent, the one year earlier established specialized Starship Modeler website has taken over from The IDIC Page by later incorporating a reference section featuring pictures of the actual studio models, including several from other science fiction franchises as well. The very first specialized print publication on the subject concerned the 1999 Japanese reference book Star Trek: Official Guide 4 - Mechanics, though that book has remained a rarity outside Japan.
Still, modelkit companies have by and large continued to underestimate the modeler's need for accuracy, those from imaginary franchises in particular, and persevered for marketing purposes with the use of for modelers next-to-useless, albeit flashy, imagery as box-art, with the noticeable exceptions of Bandai and some of Polar Lights' later kit releases. Lack of reference material on the other hand, is hardly an issue of note for modelers anymore, as far more of it has by the late-2000s become available, both on the internet and in print, and greatly aided by the advent of both production-used CGI and High-Definition/Resolution motion picture productions, the former incidentally, increasingly used as not only box-cover art by Polar Lights for their kit releases, but also used for illustrative purposes in print publications, especially those from GE Fabbri and its successor Eaglemoss Collections.